6-3: Forum Tips

Mostly DVD Issues

6-3-1: How to capture DVD screen?(*credit: Jim Hardin*)

Capturing a still from DVD.

First thing you will find is that the normal Windows capturing methods WILL NOT WORK. The normal Print Screen and then Paste does not work when using DVD. Likewise the DVD player that shipped with some Dells by Quadrant International, offers no capture ability.

The reason DVD won’t capture has to do with interlacing. I read an explanation of this once, but frankly I did not really understand it.

Solution: You will have to go with another software decoder such as WinDVD (http://www.intervideoinc.com/jsp/Home.jsp )or PowerDVD (http://www.cyberlink.com ). These are just two and there are more out there. I choose PowerDVD so I will talk about that one.

It is important to setup the capture parameters before starting. Capture options include: to Clipboard, to Wallpaper (Center or Tile) , and to File. File is my preference and you can designate where it will go. It will automatically number each capture so you do not have to worry about overwriting a file. BMP is the only format.

As long as Hardware decoding is operating, the option of setting the brightness is not available. The capture will come out darker than what you see on screen. You will have to disable hardware decoding or play with the captures in a graphics program when finished. Captures will be720 X 540 @ 96 dpi, so do not expect too much quality… PAL would be slightly more, but still far short of the 300 dpi found in a still digital camera.

Here are two I took from Six Days and Seven Nights, both tender moments between Harrison Ford and Anne Heche.

These are ‘bright’ scenes and I would probably increase brightness by 5% or so to make them come out better. This DVD is also in wide screen so cropping the image to remove the black bars would be a good idea.

6-3-2: DVD Support in Windows 98

DVD Support in Windows 98

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows 98

SUMMARY

This article lists DVD decoder adapters that are supported in Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft supports the reading of DVD discs within Windows 98 using SCSI and ATAPI-compliant DVD-ROM drives. Playing movies is supported only with the following decoder adapters:

• Toshiba DVD decoder adapters included with Toshiba Infinia DVD systems with either S3 or ATI display adapters.
  
  
• Quadrant Cinemaster C rev. 1.2 decoder adapters included with Dell XPS- series computers. Note that updated Quadrant Cinemaster decoder drivers are available on the Windows 98 CD-ROM in the Drivers\DVD\Quadrant folder.
  
  

Because Windows 98 DVD Player is designed to work with the Windows 98 decoder drivers, the option to add or remove DVD Player is not available until a supported DVD decoder adapter is installed and detected.

Once a supported DVD decoder adapter is detected and the Windows 98 drivers are installed, a shortcut for DVD Player is added to the Entertainment menu and the option to add or remove DVD Player becomes available under Multimedia on the Windows Setup tab in the Add/Remove Programs tool. After it is installed, the DVD Player software can be removed and reinstalled without having to reinstall the decoder drivers.

NOTE: If a supported DVD decoder adapter is being used, but has third- party drivers installed, Windows 98 does not install the Windows 98 drivers or DVD Player until the third-party drivers are removed using Device Manager.

Other DVD playback software and decoder adapters, including other Cinemaster DVD decoder adapters such as the Cinemaster S, are not supported and require the drivers and software provided by the manufacturer to function properly.

Additional query words: mpeg udf cards

6-3-3: No Audio from DVD (Author: Egbert Hidding )

If you have HW-decoder:

Audio comes through the cable from Cinemaster Card to your Audio Card.

1. Check if cable is present
2. Check your audiomixer settings!!! auxillary-
   INPUT-channel should be "checked" and
   volumu "up"
3. If you make use of SPDIF (dolby digital directly
   from your cinemastercard to f.i. ADA885) check
   toggling the SPDIF-button on the panel of your
   DVD player.

If you have Soft-decoding:

You should hear sound just like you hear it with games and audio play.

1. Check also here toggling the SPDIF button
   on the panel of your Soft player

6-3-4: Why do I sometime hear "pops", "hiccups" or "skips" when recording from DVD? (credit: Big Brother)

The "hiccups" you refer to relate to the fact that both your DVD and CD-RW are actually connected to the same IDE controller. The "skips" are caused by a pause in the data stream to the CD-RW during the recording process. The pause is due to the need to read more data from the DVD drive so that it can be passed to the CD-RW drive. In short: because both of these devices are on the same IDE channel, the system must interrupt the data stream to the CD-RW when reading from the DVD. This is not really a cause for alarm nor is this a problem with your computer. This is a limitation of the data transfer rates of these devices and the amount of data that the CD-RW can actually buffer while waiting for more data to be read from the DVD. If you are recording at speeds of 4x or higher, try slowing the record speed so that the CD-RW will not empty it's data buffer so quickly.

Big Brother

6-3-5: Error Message Inserting DVD Movie in Cinemaster C WDM DVD Drive ( Article Q232807 )

Error Message Inserting DVD Movie in Cinemaster C WDM DVD Drive. ( Article Q232807 )

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a DVD movie disc, you may receive the following error message:

The software DVD isn't supported, you need to install the proper decoder.

If you look in Device Manager, you may notice a exclamation point (!) next to the Cinemaster C WDM DVD drive. If you check the properties of the drive, it may display a status of Code 28.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if the Plug and Play operating system setting in the computer's CMOS settings is set to Yes.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, change the Plug and Play operating system setting in the computer's CMOS settings to No. Please contact the computer's manufacturer for assistance with using the computer's CMOS configuration program.

To work around this issue, reinstall the DVD drivers:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.
   
   
2. Click the Device Manager tab, double-click the DVD branch to expand it, click the Cinemaster C WDM DVD drive, and then click Properties.
   
   
3. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver, click Next, click Search for a better driver than the one your device is using now (Recommended), and then click Next.
   
   
4. Insert your Windows 98 CD-ROM, click to select the Specify a location check box, type drive:\drivers\dvd\quadrant, where drive is your DVD-ROM drive, and then click Next.
   
   
5. Click Next, click Finish, and then click Close.
   
   

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft recommends that you change the CMOS setting. Reinstalling the driver should correct the issue, but it may reoccur at a later date with other DVD discs.

Additional query words: bios

6-3-6: How DVD Regions are Selected for Use by Windows 98 / Me DVD Player. ( Article Q192103 )

How DVD Regions Are Selected for Use by Windows 98/Me DVD Player. ( Article Q192103)

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
• Microsoft Windows 98

SUMMARY

This article describes how the DVD Player tool in Windows 98 and Windows Me handles DVD region selection.

MORE INFORMATION

The initial default DVD region is chosen during Windows 98/Me Setup when you select a country in the Establishing Your Location dialog box. If you choose None for a country location, the default region selection is based on the country code and time zone.

The first time a DVD movie is inserted in the drive, Windows 98/Me compares the region on the movie disc with the region selected during Setup. If the DVD movie has a different region than the region selected during Setup, the default is changed to match the DVD movie. If the first DVD movie inserted in the drive has only one region on the disc, Windows 98/Me uses that region as the default, regardless of everything else.

Once the selected region has been used to watch a movie, you can change it four times, for a total of five possible regions. When you insert a DVD movie, if the disc is from a region other than the default, a dialog box is displayed that informs you that you have inserted a disc from a different region. This dialog box displays the region for the inserted movie disc and the current player region, along with a list of new player regions and countries you can select. When you select a new region, a warning is displayed stating the number of region changes remaining before the change is written.

The DVD-ROM drive enforces the number of changes. Each time the region is changed, the new region is written to the DVD-ROM drive firmware. Once the limit for region changes is reached, the DVD-ROM firmware locks out further attempts until the drive unit is replaced or reset by the manufacturer.

6-3-7: You Receive a BlueScreen Error when Ejecting a DVD in Windows Me DVD Player. ( Article Q250177 )

You Receive a Bluescreen Error When Ejecting a DVD in Windows Me DVD Player. ( Article 250177 )

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

SYMPTOMS

If you are playing a DVD movie and eject the disk by manually pressing the button on the drive without first stopping the DVD player, you may receive the bluescreen error "Error Reading CD-ROM in drive X:" (X being the letter of your DVD drive).

WORKAROUND

Quit the DVD player program before manually ejecting the DVD movie, or click Eject in the program to eject the DVD.

MORE INFORMATION

Not all drives exhibit this behavior. This behavior occurs on the TORiSAN DRD-U424. Please comment this article if you find additional DVD drives that display this behavior with the DVD player in Windows Me.

6-3-8: DVD firmware "Time Out" error (Author-Dell-Cody)

Dell -Cody

07/25/2001 12:30 PM